Are
you struggling to make your online
store stand out on social?
With
so many retailers trying to win the attention of your audience, it
can be difficult to stand apart from the crowd. But with a few tweaks
to your social strategy, it's not impossible to get people to notice
you.
That's
why this week we thought we'd share with you our 8 top tips to help
you grow your social channels...
1.
Run a user generated content campaign
A
user generated content campaign is a great way to stand out on social
because it gives your customers a voice. Typically you'll set a theme
for the campaign and ask your customers to post photos using your
products. You can assign a hashtag to your campaign to gain more
exposure to your brand, and you'll be able to collate the content
under one feed.
For
example, Starbucks asked fans to draw a cool design on their coffee
cups and then upload the photo to their social feed. This helped
create a buzz surrounding the brand, plus it got fans to buy more
coffee – mission complete!
Check
out this
blog from HubSpot
to find out more awesome examples of user generated content
campaigns.
2.
Stick to the 5:3:2 rule
Have
you heard of the 5:3:2 rule? It's basically a ratio to follow that
will help you build an effective strategy for your posting schedule.
The idea is that for every 10 posts you make, 5 of those should be
content from others, 3 should be fun content that will show off the
human side of your brand.
Sure
you may not like posting content from other people, but the reason it
works so well is because it's targeted to your audience. If you want
to grow a large following then you need to make your feeds about
them, rather than 100% focused on you.
If
you're looking for content curation sites then check out places such
as:
3.
Post images
Did
you know that 87%
of the posts shared on Facebook include an image? Social media is all
about telling a story in a fast, engaging way, and there's no better
way to do that than by posting an image.
The
great news for Ecommerce owners is that you don't have to waste time
sitting around deciding what images to use – you can post your
products! Now, we're not saying that you should continuously post
your products, but so long as you get creative and keep in mind the
5:3:2 rule then you'll see your followers grow.
This
image below from Nordstrom
is a great example. They've created an adorable image for Father's
Day helping to become universally shareable and gain more exposure.
4.
Join a Twitter chat
Have
you ever joined in with a Twitter chat? It's great for building your
followers as you can join a community full of people that want to
discuss the same topics as you. You can use handy platforms such as
TweetChat
that will block out the noise of your feed so you just see the people
who are involved in the chat itself.
Each
time you post a reply to a question a hashtag related to the chat
will be included in your tweet, and if the chat has a large community
then you'll typically see the hashtag trending while the chat is
taking place. There are plenty of chats taking place across Twitter
so check out TweetReports
to find one that is related to your niche.
5.
Engage with your followers
Engaging
with your followers is all part of a good social strategy. The more
you reply to your followers, the more people will want to stay
connected to you, and the more likely you are to stand out as an
engaged brand on social.
If
you're finding it hard to stay on top of replies while running your
online store then think about employing a social media expert who can
take the load off your plate. It's also a good idea to set up an
account that specifically handles customer support as you can monitor
problems and deal with them efficiently, and away from your main
social account.
Nike
is the perfect example of a huge brand that will regularly reply to
their fans. They even have dedicated accounts set up to offer support
when customers need it.
6.
Include social sharing on your site
Optimizing
your social pages with a link back to your site is an obvious first
step, but what about the people already on your site looking for your
social platforms? If you include social sharing buttons on your
website then you can direct people to your social media.
Our
top tip is to include social sharing buttons on your blog and your
product pages. That way, you'll encourage more people to share your
content and your products – helping you to get more exposure on
social and sell more stuff!
7.
Pay to promote your content
The
problem with some social media channels such as Facebook, is that
they have certain posting restrictions making it difficult to get
your content in front of the people who would be genuinely interested
in seeing it. So that's why it's a good idea to pay to promote your
content.
You
can set a budget that you can afford and you'll be able to target
your post to your audience. That way, you'll build more likes and
you'll be able to put your content and products in front of people
that are interested in buying.
8.
Set up a posting strategy
Updating
your social feeds on the fly is great for keeping up the trending
topics, but it's also good practice to have a constant stream of
content. That's why a social media management tool can really help as
you can set up a schedule of content that you want to post and
automate them to publish on certain dates and at certain times.
Some
of the most popular platforms include:
Wondering
when you should set up your posts for the best response? Check out
this infographic
by QuickSprout to find out stats on the best time to post for each
platform, but also be sure to stay on track of your feeds to find out
when your
audience is most engaged with you.
Takeaway
So
those are our 8 top tips on how to make your store stand out on
social. The big takeaways here are that you need to post a mixture of
content in addition to your own, you need to make sure you're showing
off your personality, and you need to engage with your followers as
much as you can!
Can
you think of anymore? Let us know in the comments below. And don't
forget, if you want to set up your Ecommerce
store
then get in touch with us today.